Tea at Trianon: Blaming the Christians

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, July 8, 2016

Blaming the Christians

From Seton Magazine:

Of course, as one can imagine, many of the show trials that preceded these sentences would have made Josef Stalin blush (if a trial took place at all). In imperial Rome, due process was the sign of the cross.

The goal was to crush Christianity, and the law was the most expedient means of accomplishment. The great apologist Tertullian notes that if a non-Christian were brought before a court for a suspected crime, he was tortured with the goal of getting him to admit he was actually a Christian.
Ironically, if a professed Christian were brought before a court for a suspected crime, he was tortured with the goal of getting him to renounce Christianity.

It would be a terrible understatement to say that Christians received a lion’s share of the blame for Roman society’s ills. Much more than that, Christianity essentially received all the blame; indeed, that was an institutional part of the societal framework.

Tertullian noted that Christians were being blamed not only for every class of crime (including, of course Christianity itself, which was a capital crime) but for every particular crime. Everything was seen as the fault of a Christian: agricultural misfortune, environmental changes, unlucky rolls of dice.

Everything.

Writing to the Roman leaders of his day, Tertullian railed: “If the Tiber has overflowed its banks, if the Nile has remained in its bed…your cry immediately is, ‘This is the fault of the Christians!’”
Imagine that.

Imagine a scenario in which Christians are blamed for environmental problems like droughts and rising tides. Imagine a scenario in which any and all societal ills (both real and imagined) like poverty are attributed to Christians and Christianity. Imagine a scenario in which a non-Christian commits a crime and the elites blame Christianity.

Sadly, we don’t have to imagine—just spend a few minutes on the internet. Christians are accused of everything from

depression

to global warming

to Nazism

to desiring the denial of basic healthcare

to an array of women’s health problems

to stock market corrections

to poverty

to emotional problems
to the tragedy in Orlando

to everything

When we see in the news that Christians are blamed by some elites for everything, it might be important to realize that this is not a new development. Our response should be what it has always been: practice our Faith with love and hope, increase our knowledge so that we may intellectually defend our beliefs, and speak up for those Christians who are being particularly attacked. (Read more.)